A new study reveals that nearly 40% of Europeans want to "live in a world where chemical substances don't exist." Another 82% didn't know that table salt is table salt, whether it is extracted from the ocean or made synthetically.
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A recent study shows that dramatic changes in income can increase (or decrease) the incidence of cardiovascular disease. And no, it's not about gaining or losing health insurance. Could there be something other than $$$ at play? Let's find out.
The risk of colon cancer from nitrite-preserved meat has been debated for so long that even the preserved meat has gone bad. A new study tries to back up this claim -- and fails miserably.
Americans are uniquely litigious. There are reforms that could be made to the legal system that would fix this, but lawyers are financially incentivized to resist them.
Anti-GMO activists routinely label scientists and biotech supporters "shills for Monsanto." However, a new study suggests that those who spread GMO disinformation are the ones who are actually motivated by money.
Price transparency means not having to settle for the MSRP, the manufacturer’s suggested retail price, or the sticker price or the friends-and-family discount. Instead, it means seeing the real, bottom-line price. So when it comes it medical care, why is this still an issue?
The ALA does not approve of e-cigarettes, despite the fact that thousands of smokers have used them to quit. Is their reluctance to acknowledge the utility of e-cigarettes due to a financial conflict?
How can physicians, in the care of their patients, translate research findings into useful information? P-values suggest differences, not effects. But could there be a simple solution?
Microsoft Japan decided to try an experiment: Three-day weekends, every weekend. It might be reasonable to assume that productivity would fall in proportion to the number of hours lost, i.e. a 20% drop, right? But that's not what happened. Microsoft observed a 40% increase in productivity.
A healthy lifestyle and a few inexpensive medications are as good as expensive surgery or stents in treating chronic heart disease. Translating this study to the real world is going to be tough because many patients prefer not to alter their lifestyle. No one minds the pills, but stents just seem simpler than changing how one lives.
While Facebook has drawn massive criticism over manipulative political ads, the social media giant also runs advertisements around vaccinations, which is another divisive policy topic. A new study gives us a glimpse of the ads' content, targets and purchasers.
Like ACSH itself, ACSH advisor Dr. Jeffrey Singer is a proponent of harm reduction. Here's his take on a report, issued by the health and medicine panel of the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine (NASEM), titled "Opportunities to Improve Opioid Use Disorder and Infectious Disease Services." Not surprisingly, Dr. Singer calls for needle exchange, methadone use, and the use of prescribing pre‐exposure HIV prophylaxis (PrEP) and post‐exposure prophylaxis (PEP).
We've all seen the ads for genetic testing. They seem to come in two forms. In one, testing tells me more about the ancestors I expected to find; in the other, I have to exchange my kilt for lederhosen. A new study looks at one way in which people respond to these findings.
Should you be in the mood to change the color of your pee, this is the article for you. Two drugs and one natural product do the job quite vividly. A colorful chemistry lesson, a party trick, and good bathroom reading!
A new paper in the periodical Health Affairs demonstrates the separate universes of patients and information technology policymakers. Before you decide that this doesn't affect you, consider that these "meaningful use" programs have already cost the taxpayer $38 billion.
The ubiquitous online portals are always in the news. A new study looks at how we use – and are used by – these virtual conversations that first started taking place around the campfire before moving to the water cooler.
Infectious diseases, such as influenza and tuberculosis, kill millions every year. But an infectious disease can kill in another way: by causing cancer. The good news is that many of these infections are preventable or treatable.
“There has been considerable time passed (5-10 years) from the initial alarm and subsequent legislation at all levels of government concerning the presumed links to traffic accidents/deaths with increased texting while driving. Was there ever any evidence that texting while driving resulted in increased accidents/deaths? Or, did texting while driving just replace other distractions for those same drivers, who would have had their accidents anyway?”
If you're a government agency like the CDC, the best time to admit to a huge mistake is on Friday afternoon before a three-day weekend. And if you're a government agency like the FDA, there's never a good time to make a boneheaded decision.
For centuries farmers have tried to bend their crops -- nature’s bounty -- to their will to create bigger, more plentiful, perhaps ever-tastier foods. In the past, this genetic editing, known as hybridization, has been luck of the draw. But new genetic technologies have changed that random-luck equation. A new study looks at how your scientific literacy impacts the perception of these changes, and whether knowing more reduces fear.
There’s been endless debate about which is the best way to eat, and many an extreme diet created in both camps to line the pockets of dodgy doctors. However, if a new study published in JAMA Internal Medicine is anything to go by, it’s just not worth getting worked up about.
Peter Fairley, an environmental journalist and contributing editor for MIT Technology Review, cited an anti-vaccine website, DeSmogBlog, in a smear directed at our organization. Simultaneously, he spread misinformation about influenza and COVID-19 and endorses advice that contradicts that of the CDC and World Health Organization.
As the number of patients requiring ventilatory assistance to survive COVID-19 rises, and with no new ventilators in sight, a "Hail Mary" technique is starting to be used. Can a machine designed to help one patient be reconfigured to support two or more? And can it protect society at large, even just a bit, from surging hospital admissions?
If there was any effect of this drug on COVID-19, it was minimal. Hydroxychloroquine, whose toxicity is far lower, may be safer than chloroquine. But that doesn't matter if the drugs are ineffective.
On Rachel Maddow's MSNBC show, New York Times science and health reporter Donald McNeil praised China's mass quarantine camps as the best way to fight the COVID-19 pandemic. A CBC documentary reveals what that policy entails: Citizens are literally being dragged out of their homes as they cry and scream. Others have their doors welded shut.
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